What's Kraken with Jo Szewczyk

Jo Szewczyk
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Biweekly

Twenty minutes. One guest. No script. What's Kraken? is Empty Hell's interview series, hosted by bestselling author Jo Szewczyk (the Scarlet Mysteries series, Surviving Gen X) — raw conversations with the filmmakers, musicians, writers, activists, comedians, and elected officials shaping culture right now. The stories, the struggles, and the process behind the work. New episodes drop regularly on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe and join us.

  1. 3d ago

    Brian Brady: Cop to Crime Novelist

    Former Berkeley cop turned police chief Brian Brady writes the Golden Gate Tales, a series of San Francisco crime novels built from decades on the job. He and Jo talk about why fiction beats true crime for him and the dead time TV never shows. They also get into AI as a research tool rather than a writer, and the $3,000 ‘bestseller guarantee’ that burned an ex-cop who should have known better. Key Moments Why crime fiction beats true crime for him, and how his characters are composites of real cops (with the occasional thinly veiled villain)The dead time TV skips: weeks waiting on DNA, and why that downtime is where his characters get builtAI as ‘Google on steroids’ for research only, and why he still drove the road himself to check itGetting taken by a fly-by-night publisher, and why a few hundred dollars on a literary attorney protects your rightsThe Takeaway Brian’s advice to his younger self: be a little more realistic, set reasonable goals, and take time with the people around you who’d like to have you there. Guest Links Books: https://www.goldengatetales.com/books Website: https://www.goldengatetales.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bbrady132/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goldengatetales YouTube: https://youtube.com/@AuthorBrianBrady TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@goldengatetalebbrady Jo’s book, Scarlet Shadows: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Brian Brady: Cop to Crime Novelist

  2. 6d ago

    Sharon Farber: Anyone Can Be a Medium

    Llewellyn author and medium Sharon Farber wasn't born with 'the gift' — she chose it. A massage therapist and energy healer for years, she took up mediumship after a single home demonstration, trained at England's Arthur Findlay College, gave 118 free practice readings, and now teaches others to do the same. Jo and Sharon get into ghosts versus spirits, why she doesn't believe in demons or attachments, whether time exists on the other side, and what trance mediumship actually is. Key Moments How one living-room demonstration turned a massage therapist into a medium — and the 118 free readings that followedWhy nearly every beginner in her one-day class makes a validated contact, and what separates evidential mediumship from vague 'grandmother in the kitchen' readingsGhosts vs. spirits: why she believes no one gets stuck, and why people who took their own lives come through most oftenTrance mediumship explained — blending closely with spirit without possession, plus the boisterous guide she still can't nameThe Takeaway 'If I can, so can you.' Sharon wasn't born a medium. She chose it, practiced, and never stopped developing, and she believes anyone willing to do the same can connect with loved ones in spirit. Guest Links Website: https://sharonfarber.net Choosing to Be a Medium (Llewellyn): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738757489 Choosing to Be a Trance Medium (Llewellyn): https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Choosing+to+Be+a+Trance+Medium+Sharon+Farber YouTube, TikTok, classes, circles, and her St. Croix mediumship retreat: https://sharonfarber.net Read Jo's novel Scarlet Shadows: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Sharon Farber: Anyone Can Be a Medium

  3. Oct 2

    Juan 'Bean' Romero — Thirty Years

    Bean is the friend who's been in the hot seat since 1996 — the one who drove Jo everywhere, fronted the better motel, and shows up in Surviving Gen X because he was actually there. For Jo's birthday they go back through all of it: the AOL messages that started it, the two-for-a-dollar Big Macs, the sofa they kept shaking down for taco money, and the motel in LA that turned out to be an old brothel that wasn't nearly as 'not currently a brothel' as advertised. Key Moments The sofa that kept giving — flip it, shake it, and there's a dollar in change for tacosA motel booked sight unseen that was still very much in business, and stairs he had to crab-walk upThe landlord who called about the gardener working on a Sunday. It was Bean. Mowing his own lawn.Why he stuck around when Jo was blacked out for the first few years of the friendshipThe Takeaway Bean's version: anyone who dismisses Jo has their blinders on. Jo's version: he wouldn't be here without him. Thirty years, one taco split two ways, and neither of them ever went without. Links Jo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc Jo's memoir Surviving Gen X, where Bean shows up as himself: Surviving Gen X As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Juan 'Bean' Romero — Thirty Years

  4. Sep 29

    Rob Gutro — Pet Mediumship, Ghosts vs. Spirits, and the Physics of the Afterlife

    Jo Szewczyk talks with Rob Gutro — a pet medium and award-winning paranormal author who spent his career as a meteorologist, working for the Weather Channel, NOAA, and NASA before retiring after 25 years. Rob uses the law of conservation of energy to explain what he thinks happens after death, draws a hard line between ghosts and spirits, and talks about what animals communicate back to the people who loved them. KEY MOMENTS - The physics pitch: energy can't be destroyed, only transformed — so where does yours go? - Ghosts are earthbound and running down like a battery; spirits crossed over. The difference matters. - A dog who wouldn't stop mentioning Taylor Swift, and the pet parent who explained why - Why dreams are the easiest channel — your logical mind is asleep and finally out of the way THE TAKEAWAY Believe more in yourself. Don't doubt yourself, because you can do anything. He went back to school three times to get there. ROB GUTRO robgutro.com (also petspirits.com) Books on Amazon Jo's new book Scarlet Shadows can be found here (Pre order till 15 Oct 2026) As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Rob Gutro — Pet Mediumship, Ghosts vs. Spirits, and the Physics of the Afterlife

  5. Sep 27

    Tonya Todd — Banned Books and Re-Visioning Dracula

    Tonya Todd identifies as an author, actress and activist, and when she stepped off the board of the Henderson Writers Group she decided the third A needed work. So she built a banned books series — seven books a year, seven different panels, and a new episode every day of Banned Books Week. Jo and Tonya get into who actually does the banning, how the fear of it is already changing what publishers will take on, and the rage-read of Dracula that turned into her own novel. Key Moments It's usually one or two people who never read the book — and then nobody else gets to eitherWriters are now being accused of AI for using the rule of three and em dashes. Those bots got their punctuation from us (sorry bots!)Mina Murray solves the entire case, and they pat her on the head and send her to bed — so Tonya is writing her sideWrite first thing in the morning. It's not selfish; it's the oxygen maskThe Takeaway What she'd tell her younger self: You are capable of this. She didn't start sooner because she never saw anyone who looked like her doing it, so she assumed it wasn't an option. And for anyone worried about representation--you don't owe your art to your identity. Write whatever your muse moves you to write. Guest Links MsTonyaTodd.com — website and newsletter @MsTonyaTodd across social media Tonya's books on Amazon: https://link.amazon/B07cqCan1 Jo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Tonya Todd — Banned Books and Re-Visioning Dracula

  6. Sep 25

    Eric Miller: Sometimes the Light Is a Train

    Screenwriter, publisher, and Horror Writers Association member Eric Miller joins What's Kraken? with Jo Szewczyk to talk about his first novel, Whatever Happened to Uncle Ed? It's a horror-comedy where a washed-up high school basketball star inherits a fortune, a haunted mansion, and a family curse played out in magical games against shapeshifting demons. Eric's spent three decades in Hollywood writing SyFy creature features and running his own small press, and he breaks down why character comes before plot, why horror needs comedy breaks, and why he refuses to leave a reader in the dark without a way out. Key Moments - The Uncle Ed setup: a missing uncle who looks 40 at 90, a nephew named Max, and whatever the hell is going on in that basement - Character first, always: if you don't care who's in the room, the plot doesn't save you - Horror with comedy breaks vs. comedy with horror: cleansing the palate so you can go a step darker - Screenplay vs. novel: in a novel, there's nobody to yell cut The Takeaway Go as dark as the story demands, but always show the reader the path out. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, and yes, sometimes the light is a train. Either way, there's a way through. Guest Links Website: https://www.ericmillerwrites.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ragingeric/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RagingEricMiller Big Time Books: https://www.bigtimebooks.com/ Whatever Happened to Uncle Ed?: https://amzn.to/4hrf6Nx Jo's novel, *Scarlet Shadows*: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc Empty Hell is an Amazon Associate. Links above may be affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. All our links in one place: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Eric Miller: Sometimes the Light Is a Train

  7. Sep 22

    Raymond Creamer on Goody Goody, Horror, and the Soul of Filmmaking

    Raymond Creamer, the writer-director of Goody Goody, a Shudder original about a home birth that goes very wrong in a snowbound cabin, joins What's Kraken? with Jo Szewczyk on press day for his feature debut. We get into festival whiplash, why Kill Bill: Volume 1 taught him cinema can hold everything, directing Samantha Robinson in dance terms, and the reshoot where the cast threw his pages away and made the scene better. Key Moments - Press day is its own skill set: five festivals in April, and a Shudder rep pulling him out of line for The Furious twice. - Cinema can hold everything: Kill Bill was samurai film, Western, anime and horror at once, and horror gives him room a relationship drama can't. - Directing in dance terms: choreographing Samantha Robinson's physicality, the glissade that stumped the cast, and why casting is 80% of directing. - Throw the pages away: the day-three reshoot with cinematographer Tristan Noelle, and the jet-lag fight that was pure ad-lib. The Takeaway Stay the course. The weird books are fine. You're building you. And the point of writing a book isn't to have a book; it's to find yourself in the making of it. Guest Links Goody Goody is streaming on Shudder: https://www.shudder.com/ Jo's novel, Scarlet Shadows: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc Empty Hell is an Amazon Associate. Links above may be affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. All our links in one place: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Raymond Creamer on Goody Goody, Horror, and the Soul of Filmmaking

  8. Sep 22

    Mark Blacknell — From Marine to Zen Priest

    Mark Blacknell grew up in working-class Philly in the '70s — the son of an atheist socialist union organizer who had him reading Mao at eight. He ran bets for guys named Little Sween and Big Sween, joined the Marines to spite his father, and got out of boot camp just in time for Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait. Then came a master's degree, a band, a job with the governor of Pennsylvania, two years on a kibbutz on the Lebanon border, five on Maui, and finally a Soto Zen practice he's since stripped down to one instruction: sit down and stare at a wall. Jo and Mark get into the long road between all of it, and why he stopped using Buddhist words altogether. Key Moments - 'Did you join the F-ing Marines? You tell your mother.' — enlisting to rebel against his dad, right before the Gulf War - An ornithologist on TV sent him to a kibbutz on the Lebanon border for two years — and the IRS still found him there - Why he dropped words like dharma and emptiness, called it silent prayer, and got in hot water with the Zen establishment - The practice: no teacher, no breathing exercise, no clearing your mind — face a wall and start with five minutes The Takeaway Don't expect your family or your peers to appreciate your practice. Lose the appreciation. Appreciate yourself, and other people start appreciating you naturally — balance leads to balance. Guest Links stareatthewall.org Stare at the Wall: Living the Universe From Where You Sit His documentary: Woke Up Alive in Israel Jo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Mark Blacknell — From Marine to Zen Priest
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About

Twenty minutes. One guest. No script. What's Kraken? is Empty Hell's interview series, hosted by bestselling author Jo Szewczyk (the Scarlet Mysteries series, Surviving Gen X) — raw conversations with the filmmakers, musicians, writers, activists, comedians, and elected officials shaping culture right now. The stories, the struggles, and the process behind the work. New episodes drop regularly on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe and join us.

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